And so far, the social media giant is on the right path

It shows the extent of the social network’s interconnections. As you can see, it is fairly massive — Facebook has 845 million monthly active users (MAUs). This compares to the global Internet population of roughly 2 billion.

But according to Facebook: “We aim to connect all of them.”

How’s that for ambition?

The Facebook filing also provides some of the penetration rates. Here’s a look:

Country

Penetration rate

Chile

80%+

Turkey

80%+

Venezuela

80%+

United Kingdom

60%

United States

60%

Brazil

20%-30%

Germany

20%-30%

India

20%-30%

Japan

Less than 15%

Russia

Less than 15%

South Korea

Less than 15%

China

0%

The last one is interesting. Facebook is not the only country that has had problems with China. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has seen little traction, for example. Instead, Web companies often need Chinese-based companies to partner with in order to get a foothold in the country. This was the approach when Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) invested $1 billion in Alibaba. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) also has partnered with Chinese companies to get distribution for its web offerings, like Bing.

But when it comes to social networking, even this strategy could prove difficult. This type of technology is extremely hard to monitor and control. From the Facebook S-1: “(The) market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date.”

Perhaps this is why Renren (NYSE:RENN) — the “Facebook of China” — has seen its stock soar recently.

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.